JACIRT Invites Participation in Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities

The Jamaica Cybersecurity Incident Response Team (JaCIRT) is inviting participation in its activities planned for Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October.

Speaking at a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank, Head of JaCIRT, Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.) Godphey Sterling, said that the month-long observance will focus on corporate businesses and public-sector entities.

Among areas to be examined are the cyber threat landscape and the cyber ecosystem, which comprises Government organisations that deal with cybersecurity and respond to cybercrimes; securing the work environment from within an organisation; and responsible voluntary disclosure in cybersecurity.

Jamaica will recognise the month under the global theme, ‘It is easy to stay safe online’, as well as the national theme, ‘Cybersecurity is everybody’s responsibility’.

Activities will officially begin on Monday, October 3 with a virtual launch starting at 10:00 a.m.

Lt. Col. Sterling said that the event will “bring major stakeholders and players in cybersecurity awareness and resilience building in Jamaica to… look at the past year, the month we are commemorating, and the year going forward”.

Four weeks of events will follow the launch, with activities held from Tuesday to Thursday at 2:00 p.m. each day. All events are open to the public.

The first week will look at strong passwords, the use of password managers and enabling multifactor authentication to protect organisations in cyberspace.

Week two will address responsible behaviour in the digital world, while week three will focus on careers in cybersecurity.

The final week of activities will include an all-day event to commemorate National Cybersecurity Awareness Day on October 25 and a hackathon aimed at strengthening cyber preparedness in the public and private sectors.

Lt. Col. Sterling told JIS News that the month’s engagements will help to bolster the nation’s ability to prevent and bounce back from cyberattacks.

“We are urging [entities] in the public and private sectors to take a holistic but critical look at the Internet-facing resources that they have managed and maintained, how they treat their clientele in terms of disclosing when you do have vulnerabilities or suffer breaches, and to work within the established frameworks in Government and your sector to ensure that we build resilience,” he said.

JaCIRT is a Division under the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, established to deliver on the mandate outlined in the National Cybersecurity Strategy of 2015, to address matters regarding cyberthreats and provide appropriate responses.